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Inspired by both Daniel Defoe's 'A Journal of the Plague Year' (1722) and 'The King', an anthology of the witty and provocative chess columns of the Dutch Grandmaster, Jan Hein Donner, Ray Keene here collects his thoughts and writings on the year 2020 - both in chess and the wider world. His reflections include the impact of Covid-19 on the popularity of chess, the remarkable influence of the Netflix series 'The Queen's Gambit', the growing army of teenage Grandmasters, the online pivot of chess competition and the emergence of chess entrepreneurs, such as World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.. Like Donner, Ray uses chess as a metaphor for observations on art, culture and civilisation.
About the author
International Chess Grandmaster Raymond D Keene OBE, is a former British Chess champion, gold medallist in the EU and European championships, silver medal in the Junior world championship and bronze medallist in the World Team Olympiad and Commonwealth championships. He was Chess Correspondent for The Times, London, 1985-2019 and Chess Correspondent for The Spectator 1977-2019. He is also author of over 200 books on chess, Mind Sports, Genius and Thinking.
